Gov. Patrick: Public will 'warm up' to taxes

Gov. Deval L. Patrick is working all sides to build support for his plan to increase state income taxes and cut sales taxes, putting up a website Wednesday with maps showing local transportation and school projects that would be funded with $1.9 billion in new state revenue.

Gov. Deval L. Patrick is working all sides to build support for his plan to increase state income taxes and cut sales taxes, putting up a

website Wednesday with maps showing local transportation and school projects that would be funded with $1.9 billion in new state revenue.

The website launch, which is a somewhat novel approach by a governor trying to advance pending legislation, follows a series of talks with business groups and community leaders by the governor and his top aides making the case for the steep revenue hikes.

Mr. Patrick also ramped up his pitch for the tax plan at a closed meeting with House Democratic leaders and distributed printed copies of the local project maps broken down by legislative districts to each representative and senator.

Mr. Patrick acknowledged lukewarm response by lawmakers and the public since outlining the proposal in his budget last month. It calls for raising the income tax from 5.25 to 6.25 percent and lowering the sales tax from 6.25 to 4.5 percent.

But the governor said the merits of additional transportation and education spending — and arguments for a generational responsibility to do so — may still win out.

“I think it is natural and right for people to warm up slowly to tax increases,” Mr. Patrick said. “People tend to like the part of the proposal that cuts the sales tax, but less so, the part that raises the income tax. It's totally natural, especially when the expectation in the culture at large is that government wastes money,” he said.

But he said the state has cut personnel, closed loopholes in pensions and saved billions with reforms and cost-cutting in recent years. More cost-cutting will not build new roads or schools, he noted.

“We turn to taxes because roads and schools are the kind of things we do together. We all have a stake in this,” Mr. Patrick said. “This is about growing jobs and opportunity.”

The governor said he is not getting the sense that Democrats in the Legislature are ruling out the tax hike plan, and some of the state's business leaders expect some form of tax hikes from the Legislature this year.

House and Senate Democratic leaders have not said where they stand on tax hikes this year, but have yet to embrace the governor's proposal.

William Vernon, state director for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said a survey of some of that group's 8,000 members in the state found 92 percent opposed to the proposal.

Mr. Vernon said the state's small businesses pay the bulk of their taxes through the income tax.

“They are overwhelmingly opposed to the governor's plan,” he said. “If you are talking about raising the income tax rate, that is coming right out of their pockets and coming out of their business, from their point of view.”

Mr. Vernon said businesses in the state already feel they pay a lot for schools and transportation compared to other states and are skeptical about how new tax revenue would be spent.

He said some of the transportation plans including development of new commuter rail lines are “pie in the sky, dream world stuff.”

Still Mr. Vernon said, “I think they are going to enact some taxes. That is what I expect to happen. I have to be realistic.”

The governor said he believes the public has not “fully appreciated” that only those making more than $60,000 would see their taxes go up.

“If you make $60,000 or less your taxes under this plan, total taxes, would either stay the same or go down. If you make $60,000 to $100,000 your total taxes would go up a couple hundred bucks,” the governor said.

The website features maps of the state broken down into the 200 House and Senate districts that show transportation and school projects that may be funded if the tax increase is approved.

“The site will enable everybody to see what we get for these investments and to some extent what we give up if we choose not to invest. The choice is ours,” Mr. Patrick said.

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